5 Industries Drones Will Revolutionize

See Where Drones Are Bringing Big Changes

October 23, 2017,
Bruno Jacobsen

Drones originally surfaced for military purposes. However, since their introduction, they have rapidly expanded to other areas, such as entertainment, supply chains, rescue missions, and so on. Despite still being strangled by regulation in many countries, this is expected to be loosened. After that, it's a world of opportunities.

Here are 5 industries ready to be revolutionized by drones.

Entertainment Industry

Anyone who has gone to big events is likely to have seen, at some point, a drone hovering above and getting some footage. In the future, this will become more widespread. They provide clean footage without turbulence which creates an entire new way of viewing the scenes.

For instance, in the movie industry, drones are expected to fill in the gap between a helicopter shot and ground work. Flying between 15 and 90 meters (50 to 300 feet), it offers filmmakers a perspective not usually seen. The same possibilities are open to Nascar races, football games, or Olympics events.

E-Commerce

With companies like Amazon already experimenting with drone deliveries, this should come as no surprise. E-commerce companies may still have a while to go, especially in dealing with all the regulatory pressure, but there's no doubt they are trying.

Using drones to deliver items can not only reduce delivery times, as they do not need to conform to traditional transportation routes, but since you can accurately tell how long it will take for a drone to fly anywhere, they can also increase customer satisfaction by providing reliable time estimates. They will also invariably lead to the automation of many jobs, and therefore help companies cut costs. While not everyone will enjoy this, this is an almost-certain scenario, whether caused by drones or self-driving trucks.

Furthermore, there is no escaping the fact that electric drones are much more environmentally-friendly, which brings the added benefit of sitting well with other stakeholders.

Supply Chain Operations

But drones do not bring benefits only to the last mile of the supply chain. They also have the potential to completely revolutionize other parts of a company's logistics. They can, for instance, be used for inventory management, by using RFID or bar codes, and even scout for defects.

On top of that, according to Supply Chain Quarterly, drones will be used for more than inventory management. In some aspects, they are better than forklifts or factory robots to pick up items, move them around, and place them in different spots. And if we go further up in the supply chain, they can be used for prospecting and inspecting raw materials, and eventually contribute to their extraction and relocation.

Agriculture and Farming

No one should be too surprised to see that farmers are beginning to use drone technology to help with their crops more and more. According to MIT Technology Review, because of their detailed images and perfect vision, drones can help farmers see patterns that reveal irrigation problems, pest problems, and soil variation.

Using multispectral cameras, they also allow farmers to see which crops are doing well and which aren't doing so well, giving them the opportunity to quickly remedy it. Finally, another opportunity comes from the fact that, with the use of drones, crops can monitored not only a couple of times a day, but even hourly, giving farmers access to a lot more data, new patterns, and more opportunities to better manage them.

Construction

Finally, construction is likely to be profoundly affected by the introduction of drones to the industry. We've already gone from jobs that were once largely done manually to a sector where machines have become dominant. Moving into drones, whether controlled from the ground or automated, is the next natural step.

According to Fortune, a primary application of these drones will be in surveying construction sites and generating significantly more data, which can be used to prepare better for projects, track progress, and deploy resources. All of these bring cost-savings through improved accuracy, speed, and the minimization of potential issues.

They will also be used for inspection and the general monitoring of construction sides, to ensure quality of build and safety.

So there they are. Five industries on their way to be profoundly changed by drones. But these are not the only ones, of course. They will bring changes to humanitarian missions, city planning, and even transportation. It's important to start planning for these changes if one is to adapt well and benefit from them.